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Merchant Fleets/naval trading & combat
As mentioned about a million times, the naval part of the game is sadly lacking. The only way to stop a resource from reaching a civ is to
blockade every single port they own, which could take hundreds of ships. This is unrealistic. I would like to present my own idea which will add
realism and give you an excuse to build a ship or two.
My idea for trading across the seas, between land masses is just for strategic resources, which may no longer be traded by air:
As with the current setup, all strategic resources are available to all cities connected by road to the resource in question. To get the said resource
to another landmass (or even the same landmass, between cities not connected by road), I thought of the following idea:
Merchant fleets!
Each strategic resource allows 3 different routes between ports to be setup allowing that resource to be supplied. Each route should be plotted
exactly across the sea, square by square, even allowing all three routes between the same two ports. Then each turn, a merchant fleet will be
launched along each route. These routes may be changed at anytime, but once a ship is launched, it must stick to that route until it reached its
destination.
Merchnant fleets will be the first units to move each turn, and will have the same move rate as the fastest transport available.
The resource does not become available to the target landmass untill the turn the fleet reaches its destination. As soon as it pulls into port, all
cities connected by road then have that resource available for that turn only (any excess deliveries that turn are wasted). As a fleet is launched
each turn, after the first fleet arrives there should be a continuous supply of that resource (in peacetime).
Resources traded from AI civs will be launched in a similar way - by setting up trade routes from a valid port within their empire. These fleets are
considered to be property of the civ the resource is heading to.
During the war.....
Now this is where it gets interesting. In wartime all merchant vessels can be attacked. Trade routes can then be distrupted by enemy fleets (and
will also give a valid reason for the existence of privateers), making it possible to deny areas within a certain civ the ability to build certain units. It
will give a whole new sub game within CIV 3 which will reflect the situation in WW2, when America was sending huge amount of supplies to
Britain and Russia, and give a greater importance of maintaining a fleet, to defend trade routes.
This would probably be impossible to introduce into the curent version of Civ3, and too late to consider for the xp. But what about something
similar for Civ4.
Now, if anyone has got some cool suggestions for aircraft....
blockade every single port they own, which could take hundreds of ships. This is unrealistic. I would like to present my own idea which will add
realism and give you an excuse to build a ship or two.
My idea for trading across the seas, between land masses is just for strategic resources, which may no longer be traded by air:
As with the current setup, all strategic resources are available to all cities connected by road to the resource in question. To get the said resource
to another landmass (or even the same landmass, between cities not connected by road), I thought of the following idea:
Merchant fleets!
Each strategic resource allows 3 different routes between ports to be setup allowing that resource to be supplied. Each route should be plotted
exactly across the sea, square by square, even allowing all three routes between the same two ports. Then each turn, a merchant fleet will be
launched along each route. These routes may be changed at anytime, but once a ship is launched, it must stick to that route until it reached its
destination.
Merchnant fleets will be the first units to move each turn, and will have the same move rate as the fastest transport available.
The resource does not become available to the target landmass untill the turn the fleet reaches its destination. As soon as it pulls into port, all
cities connected by road then have that resource available for that turn only (any excess deliveries that turn are wasted). As a fleet is launched
each turn, after the first fleet arrives there should be a continuous supply of that resource (in peacetime).
Resources traded from AI civs will be launched in a similar way - by setting up trade routes from a valid port within their empire. These fleets are
considered to be property of the civ the resource is heading to.
During the war.....
Now this is where it gets interesting. In wartime all merchant vessels can be attacked. Trade routes can then be distrupted by enemy fleets (and
will also give a valid reason for the existence of privateers), making it possible to deny areas within a certain civ the ability to build certain units. It
will give a whole new sub game within CIV 3 which will reflect the situation in WW2, when America was sending huge amount of supplies to
Britain and Russia, and give a greater importance of maintaining a fleet, to defend trade routes.
This would probably be impossible to introduce into the curent version of Civ3, and too late to consider for the xp. But what about something
similar for Civ4.
Now, if anyone has got some cool suggestions for aircraft....
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